SPE Review London July/August 2020

SPE Review London

BEHIND THE SCENES LETTER FROM THE NEW CHAIR

July/August

2020

The official e-magazine of the Society of Petroleum Engineers' London branch

Virtual rocks: Imaginary fieldtrips for invisible students

* Machine learning and AI: Part two* C-level talks: Philip Whittaker, BCG Partner* Book Review: Disentangling the economics of oil & gas

PLUS:London sectionrecognizedfor excellence!

SPE Review London July/August 2020 2 GO: SPE London

ABOUT US

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a not-for-

profit professional association whose members are

engaged in energy resources, development and

production. SPE is a non-profit professional society

with more than 156,000 members in 154 countries,

who participate in 203 sections and 383 student

chapters. SPE’s membership includes 72,000 student

members. SPE is a key resource for technical

knowledge related to the oil and gas exploration and

production industry and provides services through its

global events, publications, events, training courses

and online resources at www.spe.org. SPE London

section publishes SPE Review London, an online

newsletter, 10 times a year, which is digitally sent to

its 3000+ members. If you have read this issue and

would like to join the SPE and receive your own copy

of SPE Review London, as well as many other

benefits – or you know a friend or colleague who

would like to join – please visit www.spe.org for an

application form.

The views expressed herein are not necessarily

those of the SPE. Extracts may be reproduced

subject to a clear acknowledgement of the source.

CONTACTS

Communications: spelondon@spemail.org

CHANGE OF ADDRESS?

Go to: https://www.spe.org/member/access/

MyAccount

SPE encourages open and objective discussion of

technical and professional subjects pertinent to the

interests of the Society in its publications. Society

publications shall contain no judgmental remarks or

opinions as to the technical competence, personal

character, or motivations of any individual, company,

or group. Any material which, in the publisher's

opinion, does not meet the standards for objectivity,

pertinence, and professional tone will be returned to

the contributor with a request for revision before

publication.

SPE Review LondonThe official e-magazine of the Society of Petroleum Engineers' London branch

Share your experiences and stories online

03 Behind the Scenes

04 Letter from the NEW Chair

06 Letter from the Editor

23 SPE London Board

FEATURES

09 Machine Learning and AI applications, Part 2

11 C-Level Talks.In this issue, Philip Whittaker, BCG Partner

13 Online, virtual networking

14 Book Review: Disentangling the Economics ofOil & Gas

17 Virtual rocks: Imaginary field trips forinvisible students

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

06 News Digest

08 In Memorium: Professor P.F. Worthington

In this issue

SPE Review London July/August 2020 3 GO: SPE London

Ffion Llwyd-JonesBusiness editor and writer.Finding, explaining and sharing

stories that people can

understand and relate to.

International experience in

technology, environment, and

animals as therapy.

Behind the Scenes: SPE Review Editorial Board

Josh BeinkeGraduated from University of

Adelaide in 2008 with a

Petroleum Engineering degree.

Moved to Europe in 2016, and

working as a Production/

Exploitation Engineer with

Vermilion Energy.

Elizaveta Poliakova, Editor in ChiefElizaveta is a Reservoir Engineer at Trident Energy Management Limited. She has a Master’s

of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London and a Bachelor’s in

Petroleum Engineering from the University of Leeds.

Elizaveta has been with SPE for more than five years. She was the President of SPE Imperial

College Chapter and the President of SPE Leeds Chapter. Previously, she was also on

the committee of SPE YP.

ADMINISTRATIVE

A big Thank You! to all the organisations thatsupport the SPE London section

Mark BeleskiExperienced engineer, with

deep understanding of

industry practices, trends

and challenges. Energy

Loss Adjuster with

AqualisBraemar, in

London.

Justin ReynoldsBusiness writer focused onthe energy and financesectors. Currently writes forfinancial journals, hasworked as communicationsofficer for an oil & gas start-up, and features writer forThe New European.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 4 GO: SPE London

Dear SPE London members and colleagues,

Welcome to the August issue of the SPE Review. I hope that you are all remaining safeand well as the Covid19 pandemic continues to affect our daily lives.

I want to introduce myself to you as I am the new Chair of section and will hold the position until Junenext year. I’m Adrian Southworth and have been an SPE member for over 30 years. Not surprisingly, muchhas happened over that time, some good and some not so good. My background is one of broadsubsurface engineering coupled with an early stint in drilling. I’ve held technical leadership positions aswell as being a single practitioner. I left my last employer, BP, during 2016 post the oil price fall of 2014where I was leading efforts in unconventional development and supporting development of graduateengineering talent. I am currently running my own business which focuses on offering engineeringservices to support gas developments worldwide with a more recent focus on establishing a fugitive gasemissions management offer to the industry.

I’m grateful that many of the existing board members and committee leads are remaining in place and Ilook forward in working with them in what will be a challenging year. I would also like to recognise AdamZalewski who will be acting as Chair elect. It is one of my goals to ensure that Adam is fully involved thisyear so that our initiatives can be continued into his chairmanship.

The last SPE year has been one of considerable volatility where we have seen the impact of over supply andcurtailment in demand of oil due to the worldwide impact of Covid 19 both of which have contributed to asignificant reduction in oil price both early in 2020 and potentially into 2021.

Despite this negative backdrop the section has remained resilient and has had to adjust its behaviour like somany businesses. That resilience was recognised by SPE International in awarding an excellence award tothe section. You will see the award logo appearing on the section website, in the SPE Review London and insocial media communications. My thanks go out to the outgoing Chair Maxim Kotenev for his leadershipduring these difficult times.

Turning now to the new SPE year. The volatility seen in the first half of 2020 has lessened, neverthelesssignificant challenges remain. Like many other organisations we are becoming much more familiar withcommunicating via web enabled systems such as Zoom and Teams. We will be continuing in this manneruntil the board is assured that running physical events poses little or no danger to participants. As anexample you will be seeing promotional material for the forthcoming Virtual Upstream Finance andInvestments Conference scheduled for 11 -12 November which is being organised as a joint event betweenthe London Section and SPE International. There will be more information about this event in the comingweeks so check out the section website www.spe-london.org and watch out for more social mediacommunications. Additionally, the Distinguished Lecturer program remains in place, however presentedvirtually. There are a number of events across the European Region starting early September and runningthrough into December. The first DL event for the London section is on 27th October so please watch outfor how to access this and other DL events as they are SPE specific and not available through commercialcommunication platforms.

As I’m embarking on a new SPE chapter I thought it useful to review the comments of the outgoing SPEPresident on what themes she thought the organisation should address. Her thoughts are in the latestedition of the JPT. Most SPE London members could relate to her comments, however the one thatresonated with me the most was how to strengthen the feedstock of incoming talent to our industry.

Letter fromtheNEWSPELondonChair

ADMINISTRATIVE: Letter from the Chair

SPE Review London July/August 2020 5 GO: SPE London

For me this is our most pressing and difficult challenge and we are meeting this by two initiatives that Ihope the membership will actively support.

A new committee section has been established, currently titled NetZero, led by Alison Isherwood that willreinvigorate the section's schools out-reach program with a focus on creating an engaging messagearound industry efforts to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions – the so called Net Zeroaspiration voiced by many leaders within the oil and gas industry. Alison and her team will be providingmaterial to share with the membership on this very topical issue in the coming months through the SPEReview, website resources and social media communications.

The section continues to support the Arkwright Engineering Scholarship program for upcoming talented Alevel students. We have endorsed our second scholar this year and have made a commitment in futureyears to ensure that there are more candidates from a broader ethnic mix and studying in less fortunatecircumstances.

Many of our membership also have allegiances with other technical organisations such as IChemE andPESGB. These organisations are experiencing many of the same issues as we are and I would encourageyou to share ideas and thoughts about how your partner organisations are coping with the significantchanges (& opportunities) the oil and gas industry currently faces. One area I am particularly keen to hearabout is skills and knowledge transfer. Attracting new and maintaining existing membership is an issuethat each SPE section faces and is particularly prescient at this time. SPE International is offering a numberof membership initiatives to reduce the financial burden of membership. To ensure that you get the bestvalue from your subscription go to www.spe.org and look for free webinars, discounts on learning eventsand subscription offers.

As you are aware the SPE London section is a volunteer run organisation. I’m proud of the commitmentand efforts that many of our volunteers put into running the section. Notwithstanding that we are alwayspleased to hear from members wishing to contribute to building the section's success. 2020 was a greatyear and I hope that we can make 2021 equally as successful. Please feel free to contact me atspelondon@spemail.org on how the section can remain relevant to the membership.

I look forward to sharing our 2021 SPE London journey together.

Adrian Southworth, SPE London Chair

Letter from the NEW Chair continued

ADMINISTRATIVE: Letter from the Chair

SPE Review London July/August 2020 6 GO: SPE London

Letter from the Editor

ADMINISTRATIVE: Letter from the Editor

Dear SPE members and colleagues,

Happy New SPE Year!

We are delighted to share that SPE London has won the Section Excellence award for2020! This award is given to a section for achieving an admirable level of success and is the secondhighest honour that any SPE section can achieve. On this positive note, please give a warm welcome toAdrian Southworth, our new Chair, and Adam Zalewski, our Chair-Elect. Likewise, we would like toexpress our immense gratitude to Maxim Kotenev, our past Chair, for his enthusiasm and leadership.

In this publication, SPE London continues its trilogy on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligenceapplied to Oil & Gas, written by Cameron Snow, co-founder at Danomics LLC. This month’s C-Level Talksfeatures an exclusive interview with Philip Whittaker, who is a Partner at Boston Consulting Group forthe Oil and Gas sector, while the special book review focuses on 'The Economics of Oil & Gas', by XiaoyiMu. The book provides a good flavour to the upcoming SPE Upstream Finance and InvestmentsConference, which will be held online on the 11th and 12th of November.

Not only has COVID 19 nudged most O&G conferences to go digital, but it also affected the majority ofschools and universities. In this issue, Professor Paul Glover shares his experience on delivering a VirtualField Trip to the final year students of Petroleum Engineering, Geology and Geophysics at the Universityof Leeds. I have acted as a demonstrator on the same field trip a year ago – and it was already achallenge to do it in person!

Moreover, I would like to congratulate Adam Borushek and Adam Zalewski on holding a successful SPEnetworking event via Zoom using breakout rooms. You can find more information on page 13. Allmembers are welcome to join our next session!

Finally, I would like to thank our Editorial Team at SPE Review London for their efforts, energy andsupport. Your dedication is the fuel behind our magazine!

Take care and stay safe!Elizaveta Poliakova

SPE Review London July/August 2020 7 GO: SPE London

NEWS DIGEST... NEWS DIGEST... NEWS DIGESTNEWS

15% of UK North Seaplatforms could bere-used for CCS

A new study from BostonConsulting Group estimates thatup to 15% of the UK’s North Seaoil platforms could be re-used forcarbon capture and storage tomeet its target under the Climatechange act.According to the CCUS CostChallenge Taskforce, the UK willneed to capture and storebetween 60 and 180 metrictonnes of carbon dioxide (low-high case scenarios) to achievenet-zero goals.Link here for full story

Ahead of the USPresidential elections –Energy is pivotal

Ahead of the AmericanPresidential elections thisNovember, Joe Biden, FormerVice President of the UnitedStates, wants to appropriate $2tnto “use climate policy to drag theeconomy out of its pandemic-erarecession”.With the current pandemic crisis

and diminishing green energycosts, the value seems feasible.The aim is to make the electricitysector ‘carbon-free’ by 2035while scaling up carbon captureand storage facilities.Link here for full story

OGUK introducesinitiative to supportsmall businesses

The Oil and Gas UK introduced aforum launched by its ContinuousImprovement team to supportsmall to medium businessesduring the offshore O&Gdownturn.The forum allows OGUK’sbusinesses to “support guidanceand initiatives, and theopportunity to identify andaddress issues affecting SMEs andto collectively formulatesolutions.”The forum will also includepolitical updates and their impacton the industry and its supplychain.Link here for full story

Oil & Gas Sector goesdigital

The necessity to cut costs as aconsequence of the current crisishas proved that the Oil and Gasindustry functions efficientlywhen working from home.Both operators and servicecompanies reported that themajority of drilling activities arebeing supported remotely.Link here for full storyAnd here

Oil price hits five-monthhigh

Oil prices rose to a five-monthhigh, supported by recentstimulus from China’s centralbank. Hopes of an increase in fueldemand are justified due toexpectations of economicrecovery.After a 10% cut of global supplydue to demand contraction, OPEC+ is planning to add back about1.5 million barrels of dailyproduction to the market thismonth.Link here for full story

Section excellence award

The London Section has been awarded the Section Excellence Award for2020.

The award states:"This prestigious award is the second highest honor a section may receiveand is awarded to only 20% of eligible sections around the world.

The award is in recognition of your section’s hard work and strongprograms in industry engagement, operations and planning, communityinvolvement, professional development, and innovation. We know thepast year has been unique, and we thank you for continuing to fulfill SPE’smission and serve your members."

SPE Review London July/August 2020 8 GO: SPE London

NEWS In memorium: Professor P.F. WorthingtonNEWS

Paul Francis Worthington was born on 8 August 1945 in Preston, Lancashire.The son of a headteacher and an assistant headteacher, he attended StMary’s College, Blackburn, and remained proud of his northern English rootsthroughout his life.

After taking a Bachelor of Science degree in Maths and Physics from theUniversity of Hull, UK, he taught for a year at Kilburn Polytechnic in London.A late-night conversation at a party introduced him to geophysics, and thatchance encounter set him on the path that defined his academic andprofessional life.

Thereafter Paul’s academic career took him first to an MSc. in Geophysics at Durham, then to the University ofBirmingham, UK, where he both earned a PhD researching the petrophysics of the Sherwood SandstoneGroup, and met Catherine, his wife of almost 50 years. He started his technical career in the water industrywith five years in Pretoria, South Africa, during which he became Chief Research Officer with the South AfricanCouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research and was awarded a D.Sc. by the University of Pretoria. After hisreturn to the UK he spent two more years in the water industry with Howard Humphreys & Partners inReading, before moving into the oil industry with BP in 1980.

Within BP, he rose to become Head of Formation Evaluation at the BP Research Centre in Sunbury-on-Thames, England, promoting study of both the theoretical side of petrophysics and the use of core data as anaid to integrated reservoir characterisation - especially in reservoir formations that contained appreciableamounts of clay. After BP he joined the petroleum engineering consulting firm, GaffneyCline, based inHampshire, UK and Singapore, where he concentrated on matters of equity redetermination and reservesestimation.

Paul was devoted to the pursuit of excellence and to sharing his knowledge for the benefit of the industry. Hepublished more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of engineering geoscience and petroleumunitization and coedited four books on core and log analysis. More than a few of Paul’s papers are consideredseminal within their subject areas and must be referenced in any relevant research. He served the Society ofPetrophysicists and Well Log Analysts both locally in London and served on the main body of the SPWLA inmany roles, including as its President (1985–1986). In addition, he co-chaired four topical conferences and thefirst Annual Symposium of the Society to be held outside of the USA, in London in 1987. Despite a downturn inthe oil and gas industry, Paul’s vision and drive ensured that the event was a technical, social, and financialsuccess.

Paul was the recipient of numerous SPWLA Awards for technical achievement and service, including thesociety’s top honour, the Gold Medal for Technical Achievement (2012).

Outside of SPWLA, from 1986–1992 he served as Chairman of the Downhole Measurements Panel of theInternational Ocean Drilling Program and was for 10 years a co-editor of Petroleum Geoscience for theGeological Society of London. He was also active in the London Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers,being a guest speaker from time to time at their monthly meetings.

Paul’s determination was legendary. As a young man, he was a football (soccer) goalkeeper of formidablereputation and became a lifelong fan of Manchester United. Wherever in the world he travelled, he would goto great lengths to do two things - watch the latest match of the ‘Red Devils’ and attend Mass. As both ascientist and a committed Christian, the Catholic faith played a huge role in Paul’s life. He was an activeparishioner in the parish of St Francis, Ascot, for almost 40 years, where he taught the children’s liturgy, was aregular reader and edited the parish magazine. In later life he was honoured to be invited to become a Knightof the Holy Order of the Equestrian Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Paul continued his pursuit of learning and education right until the end. His final academic achievement wasconsolidating the legal side of his unitization experience into an LLM by Research at the University of Reading,UK. This work is now published as his final legacy, ‘The Law on Petroleum Unitization’.

Paul is survived by his loving wife Catherine, his children Michelle, Mark and Tim and his four grandchildren.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 9 GO: SPE London

Machine Learning and AI applications in Oil &Gas, Part 2

FEATURE: Machine learning and AI applications in oil and gas

In my previous article, I outlined the broad potential that machine learning and AI have inthe oil and gas space. In this article, I cover some of the steps that companies need to taketo set the stage so that they can successfully utilize these technologies to drive theirbusiness.

The oil and gas industry has historically been data driven. From the earliest commercial seismic surveys toSchlumberger’s first wireline logging jobs the industry has always sought to leverage data to drive theirbusiness. In the age of machine learning and AI, data has never been more important. However, for manycompanies data management has focused on data preservation instead of building and maintaining accessibledatabases of well-organized, consistent, and clean data.

Regardless of the state of your company’s current data, it is never too late to make the transition to a datadriven organization that treats data as an asset and source of competitive advantage.

Becoming a Data Driven OrganizationWhen evaluating the decision to move your company towards being data driven it is important to honestlyassess the current state of your data management and consider the following:

·What will it take to get my historical data into the formats and systems required to use it effectively?·What will it take to establish a system to capture data point forward?·What cultural changes are required to ensure data is entered into those systems.

The first question is largely one of time, money, and manpower. Working through a company’s networkdrives, staff computers, and even potentially email archives to find all the relevant data will be non-trivial formost companies. Outsourced solutions will typically provide the most consistent results, but in downturnssuch as the current one, there will rightly be a desire to preserve jobs and use existing internal resources.Whether the work is done by existing staff, new hires, or third-party contractors/vendors there is no freelunch – moving data from an old (potentially chaotic) system of data management into a new, modernsystem of data management will require a significant investment.

The final two questions are more of company culture and systems. Companies must have systems in placesuch that petro-technical employees can get their data into it without undue burden. In many cases this willrequire enforcing accountability and incentivizing compliance, as well as ensuring that management not onlyembraces, but actively champions, the process.

Data’s Value PropositionData management should create value. Multiple studies have shown that significant employee time is spentsearching for and accessing the relevant data. The best answer to “Where can I find this data?” should neverbe “Let me search through my email.”

Value Proposition 1: More accessible and better organized data will reduce the amount of time spentsearching for the required data.Time-pressure is a constant. Whether it is the race to complete an analysis before making FID, drill a wellbefore concession expiry, or seizing first mover advantage in a new play we are all racing against the clock. Inthis race there is a tradeoff between completeness and timeliness, and in many cases this means utilizing the

In the second of a three-part series, Cameron Snow (co-founder, Danomics), provides anoverview of existing applications of machine learning and AI, and where opportunitiesare ready to be seized.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 10 GO: SPE London

Machine Learning and AI applications in Oil & Gas,Part 2... continued

FEATURE: Machine learning and AI applications in oil and gas

data that is currently in hand. A good data management system will minimize this tradeoff.

Value Proposition 2: More accessible and better organized data will increase the completeness of the data setused for decision making.Many disciplines and processes within companies are driven by workflows, and in the early stage of manyworkflows there are myriad steps related to data QC, standardization, and basic processing. A good datamanagement system will allow users to pull data that has already been cleaned and labelled as ready for use,allowing workers to move more directly into interpretations.

Value Proposition 3: Good data management will reduce the duplication of effort related to data pre-conditioning.There are many additional value propositions for data, but in general they can be summed up as reducing thetradeoff between time and quality.

Data Management for Machine Learning & AIData is the lifeblood of machine learning and AI applications. For many models there is a trend in which thequality of the result increases slowly until a certain amount of data is available for training at which point thequality will improve rapidly with more data. This means that capturing a large percentage of the availabledata early in the process will allow models to be trained, tuned, and deployed faster.

Well organized data is also critical to keeping projects within budgets. Within a data science team it is notuncommon to have 2-3 data engineers for every data scientist – and this is because the data is often ininaccessible and inconsistent formats. Having your data as close to user ready as possible will reduce this ratioand will mean lower overall spends on machine learning and AI model development.

Machine learning and AI models create value once they are productionized and deployed – until then they aresimply science projects. Having good data management systems in place will facilitate building a data pipelinethat feeds data directly from databases into predictive models so that insights can be acted on continuously.

ConclusionsGood data management is good business practice. It should increase productivity and enable better decisionmaking. Within the context of machine learning and AI, data management should ultimately lead to bettermodels, faster timelines from project start to model deployment, and reduced costs. Becoming a data drivenorganization may not be easy if your company is behind the curve, but doing so will pay off in the long run.

The third part of this three-part series by Cameron Snow will be in the September/October issueof SPE Review London.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 11 GO: SPE London

Putting enjoyment high on the list of criteriaagainst which to evaluate life and career choices

FEATURE: C-Level Talks

Who is Philip? Tell us about yourself.

I’m married with four children, two cats and a newpuppy at home in London…the COVID lockdownraised the pressure to get a dog to unsustainablelevels and I cracked. My older two kids are both nowat University studying to be medical doctors, but thehouse is still pretty noisy most of the time.I grew up in the Peak District, but always had a hugeambition to travel, which has shaped many of mychoices. I was sponsored by the RAF at school andUniversity, and they taught me to fly when I was 17.But as I finished University, defence spending cutsmeant that there was very little flying available forthe foreseeable future, and I started to look at otherways to see the world. That’s where oil came in.

Walk us through your career. How did youbecome a Partner at BCG for the O&G sector?

I began my career at Shell in front line drillingoperations. It was, and remains, an exceptional placeto start a life in E&P – the investment in structuredtraining was extraordinary, and I spent my earlyyears in wellsite roles from roughneck to derrickmanand then on to supervisory positions. I went throughthe Round 1 and Round 2 well engineeringprogrammes, and I guess will always feel a driller atheart.I started in the Netherlands – where I met my wife,then a geophysicist at Shell – and went on to spendtwo years rotating to Peru working on a very remotejungle heli-rig appraisal programme, resupplied by amix of Hercules aircraft, a Chinook helicopter andhovercraft on the Amazon. It was an incredible

adventure – an operationally and logisticallychallenging programme under intense scrutiny fromenvironmental organisations in the wake of BrentSpar. I then spent a couple of years rotating as acompany man in PDO, Shell’s Omani affiliate,running high speed, low cost desert drillingoperations – a wonderful country and people.By that time I had a young family, and being awayfrom home for 4 or 5 weeks at a stretch was nolonger how I wanted to live. I had also become a bitimpatient at the pace of progression in a majoroperator, so I moved into management consulting –but always with a focus on Upstream. I joined BCG asa Project Manager 13 years ago, initially in Madridfor a couple of years and since then I’ve been basedin London, but always travelled globally.Consulting is heavily based on apprenticeship, andI’ve learned under and alongside some incrediblementors. You build a broad skill set ranging fromstrategy, organisation, operational improvement,due diligence and merger integration work. But thegreat thing about working in a global consultancy isthat you also have the chance to get involved in a lotof adjacent topics – from talking oil prices with theCFO of a global airline to working with a FinanceMinistry to think about decommissioning liabilities.I’ve served all of the majors at some point, alongwith several independents, most of the leadingNOCs, and many Private Equity groups.I’ve now worked with clients in around 30 countries,and I love having not just colleagues and clients butreal friends in many of those geographies. And anelement of my role is to ensure that we’re relevantto the public debate on energy, which has given meopportunities with - for example - The Economist,

Philip Whittaker is Partner & Director for O&G area at Boston ConsultingGroup (BCG).He joined BCG in 2007, and is a core member of the Energy practice, specializingin upstream oil and gas and oilfield services and equipment.He has 25 years’ experience in oil and gas exploration and production. As aconsultant, he has worked with operators, national oil companies, servicecompanies, and investors in more than 25 countries on a range of strategic andoperational issues. He has led and supported over 100 projects in oil and gascovering strategy, growth, operating models, and post-merger integration. Healso co-leads BCG's work on E&P Decommissioning. He has publishedextensively on E&P, and is regularly called upon as an oil industry commentatorby sources including the BBC and The Economist.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 12 GO: SPE London

Putting enjoyment high on the list... continued

FEATURE: C-Level Talks

the BBC and a lot of international media. I know atleast my mum and dad tune in.The career path in consulting is quite demanding,but what I love is that it’s very transparent in termsof both pace and performance expectations – a verydeep feedback culture means that you always knowwhere you stand. I now co-lead BCG’s Upstreambusiness globally along with a close friend andcolleague who’s based in Paris.

You’ve lived and worked in the Netherlands,Oman, Peru, Madrid, and London. What are themain cultural and work differences that younoticed?

I’ve always found that many elements of the E&Pand consulting cultures are quite consistentirrespective of geography, and then each newlocation adds a local twist. Wherever you go you’llalways find practical people with a bias for actionand unafraid to work hard. Sure, there are thecosmetic differences: approaches to hierarchy, trust,relationships and punctuality – but genuine curiosityand respect for people will always serve you well. Tobe honest the only real deal-breaker I’ve ever facedwas sometimes having to wait until 4pm for lunch inMadrid…

The standard route to consulting is typicallythrough an MBA, but you transitioned from atechnical background. Tell us a little bit moreabout that.

The MBA pathway into strategic consulting used todominate, but the entry routes are more variedthese days. I’d guess around half of our senior teamhas an MBA – but we also have former soldiers,doctors and even drillers. For many people an MBAcan be a great way to pivot, build a new skill set andreposition themselves. But it isn’t essential.However, if you do enter from a non-MBAbackground, it takes very focused preparation tosucceed in what is a quite specialised recruitmentprocess. Once you arrive the learning curve is steepfor everyone, irrespective of where you’ve comefrom.My operational E&P experience gives me, I suppose,a certain level of credibility and empathy with thechallenges that my clients are facing, but also - andthis is key – a very deep connection with the HSErisks that can be involved. I saw colleagues –tragically - killed and seriously injured early in my

career, so the risks and change managementimplications of our work are always at the top of mymind.

What is the difference between working withan O&G operator and serving O&G firms as aconsultant?

The most fundamental difference is that as aconsultant you’re a service provider - your mission isto serve your client, their Board and theirshareholders; it’s their business, not yours. You haveto be humble and recognise that it’s a privilege whenclients open their doors and share their challengeswith you. And if you aren’t committed to makingothers successful, it isn’t the right profession for you.“Clients come first” is one of our core values, andmost of us spend 90% of our lives thinking about ourclients’ businesses, not our own.Secondly we don’t have any assets other than ourpeople, so our people development processes arevery, very strong – you can expect to have a meatyperformance conversation at least every couple ofweeks as a consultant, which is very different frommy industry career. As you become more senior,your ability to grow others is just as important aswhat you can do yourself.Finally – and this isn’t unique to consulting - workingin a privately-owned Partnership creates a veryspecial culture, and it’s something that I’ve alwaysloved. It creates enormous mutual accountability, aculture of sharing and very high internal standards.We’re harder on ourselves than our toughest clients.

Looking back to when you graduated from theUniversity of Leeds, what advice would youwish to give to your younger self? Would it bethe same advice to those who are about tostart their careers in O&G?

Three things that I lived by then and which haveserved me well.Firstly, surround yourself with smart, energeticpeople. Their energy and behaviours will rub off onyou. Second, demand a really steep curve of learningand progression – both of yourself and youremployer. Particularly in your early years, if yourpace of learning – and capacity to change – slip,you’ll never catch up, and you’ll lose the ability tolearn fast. And finally, put enjoyment high on thelist of criteria against which you evaluate yourchoices – otherwise what’s the point?

SPE Review London July/August 2020 13 GO: SPE London

Online networking: Meet, network, and chat!

FEATURE: Online networking

Thank you to those who joined SPE London’s first online networking and discussion event.In turbulent times we all need to hear opinions and ideas from each other, but COVID put a stop to that!

We hosted an event to give like-minded people a new type of opportunity to meet, network and make newconnections.

Zoom's breakout rooms were used for small group discussions, as feedback showed people feel morecomfortable talking in a group of 4 instead of 30. We randomly assigned people into small breakout groups,several times during the event. We hoped to replicate the face-to-face chats we all have during SPE eventsover drinks, or informal discussions during breaks at conferences.

Several broad topics were selected as a basis for the conversations including:· Oil price predictions· Experiences and advice on working from home· Our favourite webinars, recorded lectures and online learning· Thoughts on career transitions for petroleum engineering skills

Thanks to the organisers, Adam Borushek (RISC Advisory) and Adam Zalewski (BP).

SPE Review London July/August 2020 14 GO: SPE London

Disentangling the Economics of Oil and GasFEATURE: Book Review

Editorial Board member Justin Reynolds reviews The Economics of Oil and Gas by Xiaoyi Mu of the Universityof Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy. Published by Agenda Publishing.

The byzantine economics of oil and gas can baffle evenindustry professionals.

Just how do companies calculate the risk of committingsubstantial resources to testing a possible petroleumfind amid so many uncertainties? How, given thoseunknowns, can exploration licences be designedrespecting the interests of all parties? How can thesecurity of oil and gas travelling through pipelines andshipping channels that cross volatile borders be assured?Why have so many countries found the presence ofsignificant oil and gas resources to be a curse as much asa blessing? What on earth are hydrocracking, alkylation,isomerisation, delayed coking, and crack spread? Why isthe oil price so volatile?

The Economics of Oil and Gas offers a guide to thevexing commercial judgements that accompany eachstage of the process of getting oil and gas out of theground and bringing it to market. Mu’s survey seeks tountangle the knotty intricacies of the sinuous network oflaws, markets and pricing mechanisms that have evolvedthrough reason, custom, chance and politicalexpediency.

Filling a gapThe book, which will be of interest to engineers, managers, business writers, marketeers and others seeking abird's eye view of the industry, fills a gap in the literature on oil and gas. There are several fine popularhistories that tell the bracing and often brutal story of the industry’s development, notably Daniel Yergin’sclassic The Prize, perhaps now superseded by Matthieu Auzanneau’s eloquent Oil, Power and War. There is agrowing library of more theoretical works assessing the industry’s profound social, cultural and ecologicalsignificance, including Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil by Timothy Mitchell, Fossil Capitalby Andrea Malm, and On Petrocultures by Imre Szeman. And there are a few useful introductions to thescience and technology of oil and gas, such as Morgan Downey’s Oil 101 and Vaclav Smil’s Oil.

Mu’s book focuses squarely on economics, referring to the industry’s history and politics while remainingscrupulously impartial. It is a dense book that crams a huge amount of information into 250 or so pages, andis perhaps better read as a reference than sequentially. And non-economists should be aware that there aremathematical equations here and there, and some rather forbidding diagrams and flowcharts. But the bulk ofthe book is written in clear prose requiring no technical expertise or prior knowledge. And it is not without acertain dry sense of humour, Mu observing that ’the demand for oil is a derived demand. It is hard to imaginethat anyone really enjoys directly consuming gasoline, diesel, kerosene or LPG; doing so would be unpleasantat best and fatal at worst.’

A mixed blessing?The opening chapter makes clear how tightly oil and gas are stitched into the fabric of everyday life, even asthe world seeks to make the painful transition to renewable energy. Oil and gas provide fuel, are crucial

SPE Review London July/August 2020 15 GO: SPE London

Disentangling the Economics of Oil and Gas... continued

FEATURE: Book Review

constituents for plastics, chemicals, lubricants, solvents, waxes, tars, asphalts, textiles, paints, detergents,perfumes, pesticides and fertilisers, and power iron and steel foundries, aluminium and nickel smelters andmany manufacturing industries.

Together, they still provide more than 50 per cent of worldprimary energy supply. Oil’s high energy density andportability offer considerable economies of scale, madeplain by the simple mathematics of a storage tank. The costof a tank is determined by its surface area but the outputby its volume, so when ‘the size of the tank doubles, thesurface area increases by four times but the volumeincreases by eight times. As a result, the unit cost of thematerials used in the storage tank halves.’

And yet, though they remain such crucial lubricants for theworld economy, oil-and-gas exporting countries have notnecessarily prospered from their seeming windfall. Mudiscusses the tendency for an oil-rich country’s total exports to fall, the so-called ‘Dutch disease’ that takes itsname from the decline of the Netherlands’ manufacturing after the discovery of the Groningen gas field in1959. The discovery of oil often leads to currency appreciation that makes exports more expensive. Thenthere is the ‘resource curse’ that can overwhelm countries with weak political institutions, openingopportunities for patronage, bribery and entrenchment of authoritarian regimes.

Mapping uncertaintyOne of the book’s most useful sections shines a light on the complex analytical tools exploration andproduction companies have evolved to quantify the risk of committing substantial resources to surveying anddrilling prospects. There is a particularly clear breakdown of the decision tree methodology that seeks to mapall contingencies in advance, peering for a route through dark forests of possibilities.

Another surveys the various regulations for licensing oil and gas exploration that apply across differingjurisdictions. Mu notes that production sharing contracts (PSCs) have emerged as useful solutions that gosome way to addressing the inherent imbalance in power relations between stage agencies and oilcompanies. Before the decision to invest there is relative parity: companies spy an opportunity, andgovernments want to attract investment. But once firms have made their commitment, and incurred sunkcosts, the bargaining power shifts to the state, opening the way for higher taxes, or even asset appropriation.By specifying the terms according to which investors can explore within a specified area for a limited time, aPSC can offer a blend of security and flexibility fair to both sides.

Mu goes on to discuss the licensing issues peculiar to the United States, where the ‘rule of capture’ grantssubsurface property rights to landowners rather than the state. The rule has been rather too successful instimulating exploration, tending to generate overproduction as landowners whose property runs over thesame underground resource compete to deplete reservoirs before their neighbours. History’s most famousexample is perhaps the rapid exhaustion of the legendary Spindletop field in Texas, where production fellfrom 17.4m a year after its 1901 discovery in 1901 to just 1.6m in 1905.

Oil tankers for every occasionA chapter on oil and gas transportation opens up the esoteric world of shipping and pipelines. There’s someoil tanker spotting, identifying the ‘Panamax’ and ‘Suezmax, designed to pass through the Panama and SuezCanals respectively, and the ‘Aframax’ mainly used in the basins of the Black Sea, the North Sea, theMediterranean, and the South China Sea. The proverbial difficulty of turning an oil tanker around is true: a250,000 tonnage tanker travelling at 16 knots takes three miles and 20 minutes to stop, and a 300,000

SPE Review London July/August 2020 16 GO: SPE London

Disentangling the Economics of Oil and Gas... continued

FEATURE: Book Review

tonnage tanker travelling at less than five knots cannot be steered at all.

Then there is the curious balance of powerattending the practice of ‘flags of convenience’,according to which tankers sail under the flagsof their registered country not the home countryof their owners nor charterers. The right of thecountry of registration to determine the lawsunder which the ship is required to operateaccounts for the unusual power that smallnations such as the Marshall Islands, Liberia andPanama exercise over the shipping of theworld’s most valuable commodity. The delicacyof this transportation network is starklyillustrated by its dependence on the four-mileshipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz,connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf ofOman, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean,through which 30 per cent of all seaborne-traded crude flows.

Pricing oil and gasThere’s an extensive chapter on the increasing importance of the natural gas industry, in which Mu attemptsto navigate the dense cloud of regional pricing mechanisms, and discusses the emerging alternatives formonetising gas that don’t rely on pipelines, liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquids. He also covers the rapidgrowth of shale that has enabled the United States to break new ground as a net exporter in natural gas, andconsiders whether the blend of circumstances that have made it possible - such as mineral property rights, arobust pipeline infrastructure, and a supportive government - could be replicated elsewhere.

The book concludes with an analysis of the vagaries of the oil price, from the birth of the modern industry inmid-19th century Pennyslavania, through the ‘As-Is Agreement’ worked out by oil barons in the 1920s to limitexcessive competition causing overproduction, to the price shocks of the 1970s and beyond. Mu argues thatthe role of OPEC in the latter has probably been overstated: the 1970s saw substantial increases in the priceof all commodities, a trend that had little to do with Middle Eastern geopolitics.

There’s also a look at the opaque world of energy derivatives - forward contracts, futures and options - thathas evolved to help producers hedge decisions that depend on oil price horizons that are effectivelyunknowable, and at the state subsidies designed to keep domestic oil prices below market value. Theprovision of such subsidies, which according to IEA estimates can reach five per cent of the total GDP of thecountries that provide them, is increasingly controversial as ecological sensitivities sharpen. But their removalcan spark serious civil unrest, as in Yemen (2005) and Nigeria (2011).

Managing the transitionThe challenge of managing an oil and gas business through the energy transition is perhaps the one majoromission from the book. It predates the pandemic, so Mu could not have foreseen how suddenly the Covid-19crisis would intensify pressure on the industry to plan for post-carbon futures, an increased urgency perhapsmost clearly manifested in the recent restructuring announced by BP. But the complexities of managinginvestment in renewables while continuing to secure a return on oil and gas exploration and production havebeen pressing on the industry’s larger companies for some time, adding another layer of complexity to thecommercial decision-making process.

That, perhaps, is an issue that would require a book of its own. With The Economics of Oil and GasXiaoyi Mu has given us a useful guide that covers as much as we might hope for from anintroduction to such a sprawling subject.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 17 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks: Imaginary field trips forinvisible students

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

Paul W.J. Glover, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK discusseshow virtual field trips offer a valid experience and a worthwhile discipline.

Everything is Different.

The week running up to 11 March 2020 was spent fielding anxious requests fromstudents about whether the field trip I lead to the Yorkshire Coast to look at ReservoirAnalogues would go ahead. Certainly, all was booked and ready to go – hotels, coaches,material, safety stuff, spare socks. There were due to be 24 Petroleum Engineering students, 8 Geologists andGeophysicists, 4 staff and 3 demonstrators. Most students were from overseas, from all around the globe.What could possibly go wrong?! The long shadow of the Sino-European cough was beginning to loom. Therewas just over 10,000 cases in Italy and 148 cases in the UK. Despite requests to move the trip to a virtual fieldtrip, permission to do it was not granted by the University until the 16th, by which time over 50% of mystudents had already left for their home countries.

Everything was going to be different. There would be no real students shown real rocks by real academics.There would be no real hotel, or coach trips, or packed lunches (which were not missed!). Warnings to alwayswear hard-hats were replaced by advice to wear pyjamas! An 8-day field trip with 2 pieces of assessment,would end up taking 25-days to run and a further four and a half weeks to mark.

The importance of high quality, dedicated staff and demonstrators was proven repeatedly. Yet, the beststudents submitted work that bettered all which had been submitted in previous years. It is true, you cannotfeel, weigh, smell, lick or spit on a virtual rock, but the digital resources we currently enjoy resulted in somehigh quality observations, nevertheless.

Focus and PreparationIt was clear at the very beginning that we would have to support students who were scattered around theworld across all time zones and with extremely different access to digital communications. Some students

ended up doing two stints of quarantine; 14 days in the UK and a further 14 days in Saudi Arabia, just becausetheir flight was turned back in mid-air. Staff and demonstrator numbers were boosted to 5 and 4,respectively.

The field trip, which was previously location-focussed immediately became exercise-focussed. It is extremelyimportant that there is a very clear focus for the students. Visual engagement, which happens automaticallywhen standing in front of an outcrop on real field trips, cannot occur in the same way virtually, so some

Figure 1. Flamborough Head in the days of conventional field trips (2019).

SPE Review London July/August 2020 18 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

strong actuating focus needed to be present. You can lead a student to data, but you can’t make it think.However, it is our job to try.

In our case two exercises were defined. The first was a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Static reservoirmodelling of laterally-bedded and channelized sandstones: structure, scale, heterogeneity and anisotropy.” Asmany students did not have recording capabilities or digital bandwidth sufficient to transmit an audioPowerPoint file, an ‘as given’ narration was required to be written in the notes boxes below each slide. Thesecond was a poster in pdf A0 format (max. 20 Mb) entitled “Compare and contrast the sedimentological andstratigraphic characteristics of the clastic rocks and carbonate rocks encountered on the field trip with regardto their reservoir potential and production challenges.” In each case the students were required to find,analyse, criticise and present data in a balanced way.

Pre-Covid-19, field trip documentation consisted solely of one 86 page spirally-bound full-colour field triphandbook which was provided in A5 format for the field and A4 for use in class in the evenings. By the end ofthe virtual field trip, this single document had been supplemented by 19 other significant support documents,including:

· A 26 page guide of how to carry out the two exercises, optimising use of the materials provided.

· An extensive set of scientific papers in pdf format, with a list of other papers and relevant websites.

· Schedules of videoconferencing meetings.

· A guide to the 8 field locations with extensive photographs and videos.

· Summary petrophysical observations collated from measurements made in previous years, includingporosity, permeability, grain size and fracture measurements, provided by the demonstrators Ghinwa Yaghyand Ru Wang.

· High quality geological maps with accurate indications of the exact position of outcrops.

· Advice on field sketching with examples high quality websites and blogs (Markwick, 2020) and articles(Jude, 2018) about how to carry out sketching.

· Notes on sedimentary structures in chalks provided by Nick Shaw.

· Examples of matrix and fracture porosity calculations (Glover and Walker, 2009) together withpermeability calculations through the matrix using the RGPZ equations (Glover et al., 2006; Rashid et al.,2015) and through fractures using the Hagen-Poiseuille plane flow equation.

· Notes on using Petrodiagenetic pathways on poroperm plots.

· ‘How to’ articles for using various pieces of software, including V3Geo, image analysis using ImageJ on thinsections obtained from scientific papers, narration handling in PowerPoint, viewing videos and pre-recordedvideo-call seminars.

· A set of 10-20 minutes videos that had been taken over the previous few years at each outcrop usually byDr. Richard Collier (geological aspects), Nick Shaw (petroleum engineering), or myself (petrophysics andmodelling). These are extremely useful in flagging-up the most important aspects at each location. They wereavailable through the LectureCapture@Outcrop initiative, which involved making brief 10 min. summarylecturelets on different aspects (petroleum geology, petrophysics, petroleum engineering) at each outcropover the previous years. Without these the virtual fieldtrip would have been a virtual non-starter.

One important aspect of developing a virtual field trip is the time required to work up adequate let alone high

SPE Review London July/August 2020 19 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

quality extra material. However, effort here pays dividends. We were surprised (i) how quickly it could bedone by a teaching team, where everyone contributed, (ii) how different staff expertise could be usedeffectively in broadening the student experience, and (iii) how some hurdles that need to be overcome for aneffective student experience were extremely simple once recognised, for example, provision of an arrow on amap showing the student the exact location of a type outcrop to save them staring at a set of photos of akilometre of cliff, wondering what to do.

The Importance of High Quality MaterialThe list above gives an idea of the type and scope of material required for the virtual field trip. High qualitystudents integrated all of these different sources and aspects. However, some of the material is critical.

The field trip depends critically upon access to reliable, relevant (location-based or analogue) and high qualitydata for each location. Years of high quality studies available in books, scientific and technical papers providea remarkable resource in this respect. Access to them was provided by Scopus (https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus) for academic papers, special issues and books, and OnePetro (https://www.onepetro.org/)for more industry-related material. Both of these were accessed by the students through the University ofLeeds library’s subscription, available globally.

The V3Geo website (https://v3geo.com/search) provides a gateway to 3D virtual models of geologicaloutcrops around the world. At the present time it contains digital outcrops at over 171 locations, some ofwhich coincided with the outcrops at our field locations (Burniston and Cloughton Wyke) while othersprovided analogue information. These digital models can be entered and move within just as if you were adrone flying around the real outcrop. Clearly, this experience is an improvement on a real field trip insofar asit is not normally possible to climb a cliff and look at it in detail, measuring the thickness of a bed with themeasuring tool, or maybe measure the periphery of an inclusion (e.g., Fig. 2). There is a full 3D and zoomnavigation so plan views are possible and the foreshore can be examined more effectively than when standingon it.

Figure 2. An example view of Cloughton Wyke using V3Geo.This outcrop can be viewed at any location anddirection and at any level of zoom with a smallest feature resolution of 5 cm, and linear or path lengthmeasurement in any direction.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 20 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

Although not used this way in our 2020 field trip, the V3Geo functionality is sufficiently good for mini-fieldexperience to be designed around a particular location. For example the Ainsa Quarry location is excellent forthe study of turbidite sequences and could be used as a 3D virtual field experience if such a play.

One of the problems with a virtual field trip is that the rapport with the rock sample in one’s hand is lost. Itbecomes difficult for an experienced earth scientist to judge composition, grain size and porosity, let alone astudent. The use of scientific papers bridges the gap partially, but then not all of what one is interested in wasstudied by the authors of the paper. We often found that papers with a geological focus provided useful thinsections or other images, but not porosity and grain size data. In this case it was best to capture the imageand image analyse it in ImageJ (Fig. 3), which is free to use, simple to operate (at least for the basic functions)and is supported by a plethora of YouTube ‘How to’ videos. We found that porosities and grain sizedistributions could be measured, from which pore and pore-throat size distributions and high qualityestimated of permeability could be predicted using the RGPZ method (Glover et al., 2006; Glover and Walker,2009; Rashid et al., 2015).

Access to high quality mapping was through Digimap (https://digimap.edina.ac.uk) which provides highquality Ordnance Survey mapping at all scales for individually chosen areas of any location in the UK, satelliteimagery and geological maps (UKGS) as well as other services.

Finally, Google Earth should not be underestimated. The individual photographs uploaded to this site by userswho have visited the field locations were used by the participants of the field trip to good effect.

Sketching, Box Models and Reservoir ModelsPerhaps the most important way to start understanding an outcrop is by sketching. In a pre-Covid-19 worldthis was always a problem for us because the petroleum engineers not only had no training in geological

sketching, but lacked the confidence to start,especially when they compared themselveswith the earth scientists on the field trip.However, most would try, and those wouldimprove enormously by the end of the fieldtrip.

We made a conscious decision to promote theuse of sketching from paused videos, V3Geo orphotos as a start to understanding thestructural complexities of each outcrop for allof the students. Support was provided throughthe video-conferencing meetings, by providingthe students with two excellent introductionsto this black-art (Markwick, 2020; Jude, 2018)and by badgering. The result was highlysatisfactory, with many excellent field-sketchesbeing produced. The isolated workspaceprovided by the lone working allowed thestudents to sketch without being self-consciousor shy about it. Not only did it provide extratexture and breadth to their submissions, but itproved to them how effective sketching is forobservation, and how well they could do it withpractice.

Figure 3. Examples of ImageJ applied for the calculation ofporosity (7.284%) from a thin section from the UpperMember at Staithes (left) and the fracture porosity (8.583%)at Flamborough Head from a filtered photograph.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 21 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virual rocks

Once sketches were made, the students were encouraged to combine these essentially 2D studies into a 3Dgeological box model by reading around the depositional environment. The box models were then used as theinfrastructure for a small reservoir model consisting of cells each of which was assigned a particular porosityand permeabilities depending on other information gathering associated with the outcrop.

The Importance of Visual ContactPerformance was found to depend strongly on personal engagement irrespective of the quality of thestudent. Some students asked many questions in video-calls, while others were essentially mute.Nevertheless, both cohorts benefitted hugely from these sessions. It kept the students engaged andinterested in a way that lone-working could never have done.

Sometimes the sessions were like miniature lectures, using shared files, such as images of rock samples (I hadluckily kept a selection of samples and fossils in my garden, which I retrieved), thin sections, maps, images,geological box models, calculations in Excel, or just using diagrams using the integrated white-board featureof the video-conferencing software we used. Sometimes, we hosted navigated 3D trips at particular locationsusing V3Geo. Often the session was devoted to answering questions from the attendees.

There are a number of video-conferencing applications which offer potentiality for field trips. A short, non-exhaustive list includes; MS Teams, Zoom, Blue Button, Skype, GoToMeeting and Blackboard Collaborate. Weused the latter, which offers the following advantages, some of which are also available now from otherproviders; (i) full integration with the Blackboard Minerva system which we used to deliver all of thesupporting material, (ii) associated discussion rooms, (iii) attendance monitoring, (iv) a chat line during thecall for questions, (v) clear hand raising, (vi) polling, (vii) breakout groups, (viii) sharing of files, video andapplications, and (ix) a whiteboard that is accessible to all.

Initially, 20 x 1.5 hour video-conferencing calls wereenvisaged, one in the morning and one in the lateafternoon on each working day of a two-weekperiod. The timings were set to allow access toeveryone each day no matter in which time zonethey were. All were recorded and immediatelyavailable to be reviewed irrespective of attendance.The significant wifi-less quarantine experienced bysome of the students resulted us in adding 6 extrasessions, morning and afternoon for those whomissed attending the previous 20. Thesesupplementary sessions were used to flag upparticular resources and pre-recorded sessionswhich would be useful to the affected students.

This third year undergraduate field trip wasattended by students with a wide range of differentbackgrounds, from Petroleum Engineers whose only

previous field experience was a single day in their first year, to fourth year geologists who had been on manyfield trips in the UK and abroad, including long-term mapping work. The staff and demonstrators on the fieldtrip reflect the huge range of student focus and experience, from subsurface characterisation (seismics,logging and core analysis) through modelling and simulation to clastic and carbonate sedimentology,stratigraphy and basin analysis, as well as in drilling, completion and production. Consequently, it was alwaysimportant to balance the staff available in any given video-conferencing session to ensure that an appropriateexpert was available in all relevant areas.

Figure 4. Encouragement to work in teams even whenisolated increases efficiency, combats the loneliness oflone working and pushes back against the tendency notto ask for help if it requires communicating digitallyrather than face to face.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 22 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

The Blackboard Collaborate system which we used allows the recording of video-conferencing sessions whichare held on the system. The ability of whatever system has been used to record sessions and manage theresulting recordings effectively is a critical necessity in a number of different ways. It enables students whowould otherwise miss the session due to illness, clashes or low bandwidth to still benefit from it. Second,Students can revisit a recording multiple times in order to pick up a single piece of advice or to understand theconversation better. Finally, we found that some students completely missed the entire series of initialsessions due to quarantine in accommodation with no digital connectivity. These students were able tocomplete the field trip by using the recorded sessions in order, only needing minimal extra help.

The assessed exercises were individual submissions and subject to all the usual plagiarism rules and checks.However, we actively encouraged team-working for the research of contributing information (Fig. 4) in orderto maximise the efficiency of the digital information trawl that the students were encouraged to make,especially with regard to the search for relevant and analogue values of grain size, porosity and permeability.

The Hunt for TreasureWhile a central feature of the virtual field trip was to have students gather, analyse, critically evaluate andreport data and observations that they had collected themselves, it was recognised that they would not be

able to start this in a vacuum. This wasespecially the case for the petroleumengineering students because of theirsparse previous experience offieldwork. After all, for a real field trip,the participants are at least taken tothe location, provided with a field guideand told what to look for. For a virtualfield trip, this seeding of the hunt forinformation becomes much moreimportant. The provision of informationmust be sufficient to prime the pumpof the most hesitant student, whileallowing the more comfortablestudents to have to ask themselvesvalid questions during their quest forinformation. So, the design of the fieldtrip becomes a little like designing atreasure hunt, where it is hoped the

clues are sufficiently challenging; not so straightforward as to be boring, but not so difficult as to be obtuse.Given the range of abilities within the student cohort, the release of data or provision of advice must needs bejudged finely. I would say that I felt more in tune with the needs of the individually students in this regardthan when in the field for real, when there may be the tendency to just point all of the students in the cohortat the rock face and say “Right, now get on with it!”, without a differential judgement of their individualabilities and needs.

Remote JudgementsUniversity field trips are assessed and count towards final degree classifications. As such, the way we changedour assessments may not be of interest to all readers. However, I think that the efficacy with which the virtualfield trip fulfilled its stated learning objectives can be judged by comparing results to those attained inprevious, virus-free years.

Previous years were mainly assessed on two manually created posters, one group work and one individual,

Figure 5. An example of a submitted poster. Irrespective of theprofessional presentation, the varied, accurate, detailed datacontent and analysis is of excellent quality.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 23 GO: SPE London

Virtual rocks... continued

FEATURE: Virtual rocks

made on the 6 field trip evenings. The virtual field trip retained the two pieces of work, with the same titles,but carried out individually and remotely. The first became a PowerPoint presentation with written narration,while the latter became a poster submitted as a pdf.

The critical differences are that this year students had digital tools to create more professional-lookingsubmissions (Fig. 5) and more time in which to complete them. However, the quality of the raw observationsand data was severely limited to that obtainable through the web

The overall marks from the virtual field trip had an arithmetic mean of 63.48±10.16% with extremes of 44%and 89%. This compares with the aggregated data from the previous 4 years of conventional field trips of64.15±7.14% with extremes of 30% and 78%. Statistically, there is no difference at a level of significance of 1%(t-test, p=0.0062). The spread is larger for the virtual field trip, which is hardly surprising given themultifarious nature of external pressures on the students, but also arises from the best ever submissions(from the same student) for the virtual field trip, when judged solely on content (i.e., deliberately ignoring thebetter presentation that digitally prepared submissions allow).

Saw Rocks, Nobody Died!Some years ago, when returning from leading a field trip at Easter but in the snow and with a fierce on-shorewind which played havoc with the tides, an experienced field geologist told me that the definition of asuccessful field trip was summed up by “Saw Rocks, Nobody Died!”. The sanguine assessment I now recogniseas post-field trip relief expressed as gallows humour. There was a point where I had several students downwith the virus, and I considered that the opposite of this phrase could actually occur. In the end the studentsdid not see any rocks up close and personal, but no one died, and I am glad to say that, at least from the veryhigh quality of some of the exercise submissions, that everyone had an experience which will not only livewith them, but which they will be able to use actively in their future careers.

What have I learned? Well, that there is nothing that can replace loyal and hard-working colleagues anddemonstrators; that there is no substitute for preparation, that students need flexibility and kindness but willrepay you in that most rare of coinage, enthusiasm, and that virtual field trips represent valid experience, andif not a complete replacement of the real thing, they are a discipline which is very worthwhile.

AcknowledgementsIn perhaps the longest acknowledgement yet, I would like to thank sincerely field trip staff Richard Collier,Luca Colombera, Jacqui Houghton, Nick Shaw, Ghinwa Yaghy, Ru Wang, Mike Shotton and Dorothy Drayton aswell as the 2020 cohorts of SPEE3560 and SOEE5616.

References

Glover, P.W.J. and Walker, E., 2009. Grain-size to effective pore-size transformation derived fromelectrokinetic theory. Geophysics, 74(1), pp. E17-E29.

Glover, P.W.J., Zadjali, I.I. and Frew, K.A., 2006. Permeability prediction from MICP and NMR data using anelectrokinetic approach. Geophysics, 71(4), pp. F49-F60.

Jude, E., 2018. Field sketching through art: an aid to objectivity. Geoscientist, December 2018, 14-17.

Markwick, P., 01/04/2020 Blog entry entitled “Field Sketching in geology: time to think”, http://www.palaeogeography.net/blog .

Rashid, F., Glover, P.W.J., Lorinczi, P., Hussein, D., Collier, R. and Lawrence, J., 2015. Permeability prediction intight carbonate rocks using capillary pressure measurements. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 68, pp.536-550.

SPE Review London July/August 2020 24 GO: SPE London

7R�UHJLVWHU�RU�WR�ƂQG�RXW�PRUH�LQIRUPDWLRQ��YLVLW�JR�VSH�RUJ�B����������[

63(�9LUWXDO�8SVWUHDP�)LQDQFH�DQG�,QYHVWPHQWV�&RQIHUHQFH��ʼn���1RYHPEHU������_�9LUWXDO�&RQIHUHQFHThe oil and gas industry has experienced highs and lows during the past decade, but the situation it faces in 2020 is unprecedented. Learn from global leaders, gain a JUHDWHU�XQGHUVWDQGLQJ�RI�KRZ�&RYLG����KDV�DƁHFWHG�RXU�LQGXVWU\�DQG�GLVFRYHU�ZKDWŌV�QH[W�IRU�XSVWUHDP�ƂQDQFH�DQG�LQYHVWPHQWV�

œ� 2Q�GHPDQG�FRQWHQW Gain access to all the event presentations and materials for 30 days after the event

œ� $�QHZ�NLQG�RI�QHWZRUNLQJ Explore a new way to chat, connect and collaborate with industry leaders

œ� 9LUWXDO�H[SHULHQFH From wherever you are in the world, you will take away a fresh perspective, � ƂUVW�KDQG�LQVLJKWV�DQG�FRXQWOHVV�FRQQHFWLRQV�

5HJLVWHU�7RGD\��

SPE Review London July/August 2020 25 GO: SPE London

ADMINISTRATIVE

Meet the SPE London BoardSPE is a non-profit professional society with more than 156,000 members in 154 countries, whoparticipate in 203 sections and 383 student chapters. SPE’s membership includes 72,000 studentmembers. The SPE London Section, with an average 2,000 members and seven associated studentchapters, is an active section with an aim to connect, engage and promote the exchange ofknowledge within the London energy community of technical and commercial professionals. TheSPE London board is the governing body for the SPE London section. The different committeesoversee the chapters various activities including the evening programme, various SPE events,Young Professionals, Women in Energy and associated student chapters.

ChairAdrian Southworth

Past ChairMaxim Kotonev

Programme ChairTim Lines

WiE ChairIsabel Asenjo

DirectorMiles Cudmore

Continuing Education Co-ChairPatrick Davies

Continuing Education ChairAdam Borushek

Sponsorship ChairAdrian Southworth

Student ChaptersMaria Astrid Centeno

Comunications ChairMark Beleski

DirectorAlain Gringarten

Secretary/Chair ElectAdam Zalewski

Young Professional ChairShwan Dizayee

Membership ChairVACANT

Big DataKanad Kulkarni

TreasurerVincent Penasse

SPE Review London July/August 2020 26 GO: SPE London

OPPORTUNITY: Volunteer

Challenging, fun, career-boosting,educational - why not explore the greatopportunities with the SPE London team?

LOVE TO ORGANISE?Volunteer with theevents section of SPELondon – you'll learnlots, be valued for yourideas, and have fun!

YOUNGPROFESSIONAL?Learn, explore andmeet your fellowYPs at SPE London

GOT GREATIDEAS?How about sharingand contributingas an SPE LondonBoard member?

FIND OUTMORE!Get in touch with ourEditor, ElizavetaPoliakova via LinkedIn

SPE Review London

Skills. Increase knowledge. Sharpen thinking. Boost expertise. Solve problems. Gain confidence. Stay competitive. Improve prospects. Move ahead. Enhancement.

Keep up with the rapidly evolving field of E&P through SPE training courses and webinars from seasoned industry experts.

Join the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a not-for-profit professional association that serves a growing worldwide membership in the E&P industry. SPE is a key resource for technical knowledge providing publications, events, training courses, and online resources.

To learn more and become a member, visit www.spe.org/join.

SPE—Setting the standard for technical excellence